Using a MacBook at Intel

By C.V. Vick (6 posts) on August 29, 2006 at 10:54 pm

Recently, I got a new dual core MacBook Pro to be my main computer at Intel. Here are some tips.

In general, there are three ways to get your MacBook Pro on the Intel's corporate network: Windows XP using Boot Camp, Mac OsX, and Parallel's virtual machine. All three methods have been used at Intel, but I won't be discussing Parallel since I've not tried it myself. Before I get into the details, here's my Top Ten List of reasons I like my Mac Book Pro.

10. I can visit the Apple store and buy an iPod with a clear conscience (I got one a few weeks after the announcement)

9. My neighbor and I finally have something in common (he works for Apple)

8. The looks from my co-workers and customers (One ISV told me: "If you told me I'd ever see an Intel employee bring a Mac to a meeting, I'd say you're crazy"

7. Doubles as a space heater during the winter.

6. I can now help out at my son's school computer lab.

5. OsX is a beautiful operating system and has some neat apps (check out ComicLife)

4. Shell and u*ix utilities

3. Integrated video camera, BlueTooth, 802.11b, 5.1 sound/optical. No more silly devices hanging off my computer

2. Magnetic power supply connector. Why didn't someone think of this before?

And the Number One reason I like my MacBook Pro...

1. DUAL CORE!!! Blinding speed - video conferencing, image manipulation and DVD movies are snappy and smooth. OK, the last two aren't really work related but you get the picture. Even simple things like spell check and program loading seem faster. There are some performance limitations when using WinXP (no DMA disk, and video drivers), but I hear that these will be soon addressed in a new version of BootCamp.

Using Boot Camp is probably the easiest way. Use the new v1.1 beta - it adds support for several devices, most notably the iSight camera.

A couple of things:

There is no Delete key on the Mac keyboard. (It's actually a Backspace). This became obvious after I added my Mac to a NT Domain. After reboot, I was prompted to press "ctrl-alt-delete" to log in. Before you add the computer to the domain, remap a key (I used the F12 key) to a delete. There are several good utilities (I used KeyTweek) that do this. Be absolutely sure which WinXP filesystem you want to use (FAT32 or NTFS). I tried to convert my FAT32 to NTFS after the install and ended up learning how to stop a Windows XP disk conversion at startup - <ugly>command line registry edit</ugly>

Some brave individuals have successfully place OsX machines on the Intel network. Firstly, you need to get Mac OsX up to Intel's minimum security rules. This includes the installation of a specific anti-virus program, browser and OsX settings, and bug fixes. Second, Airport needs to be setup to support Intel's WiFi connection/authentication security. This can be done without the use of additional software. Since our software authentication token is not supported by OsX, a hardware token is needed.

To access internal file shares, simply to mount Windows-based shares using Samba. One annoying thing: by default, OS X places hidden .ds_store files in every network share folder it touches. To disable this behavior for all users on your Mac, execute the following from a Terminal window

$ defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

$ cp Library/Prefrences/com.apple.desktopservices.plist /Library/Prefrences/.

$ sudo chmod 777 /Library/Prefrences/com.apple.desktopservices.plist

Microsoft Office can be used for office productivity. All is not perfect though " Intel's IM, video conferencing and a lot of internal web sites don't work, so some employees use a backup WinXp system

We've got an internal Wiki page where a growing community of Intel Mac users contribute BKMs and help troubleshoot issues.

I can't wait to get my hands on a Core 2 Duo MacBook!

Categories: Mobility

Comments (23) Comments RSS Feed

By jakob@alkoholzunft.de on September 4th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
Hi there fellow MBP user,

concerning your keyboard layout i would reccomend you the awesome InputRemapper from http://www.olofsson.info/index.html?inputremapper.html

I assume you have noticed the big difference in the battery time between OSX and Windows. Afaik this is due to missing power saving features in the chipset drivers!?! Do you as an intel connoisseur have any hint concerning that?

Greetings!

By anonymous@anonymous.com on September 7th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
It's "*nix" or even "Un*x" ... not "u*ix"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix-like

By Wintel_diehard@getworkdone.com on September 19th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
soooo...why not just get a dual core wintel notebook and put flyakite on it, and then GET BACK TO WORK!
If you really need adobe illustrator, fine then, buy your mac and GET BACK TO WORK!
IF you want to play with labor-intensive network joining stuff, fine, shrink your partition and put gentoo on it and spend 3 days reading all the detail on NFS vs samba, samba 3.0 config, etc. But then GET BACK TO WORK!

My point in all this is that certain machines are effective for certain jobs. Macs just aren't it in most situations. The work is what is important, and if you remember that, you won't wander around saying stupid stuff like "gee, I wish I had a mac", because you would either have one, or be like most of us, and not have one and not care that we don't.

By notsuppliedforsecurityreasons@intel.com on September 19th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
My only question is,

When you turn the lights down low, almost to that romantic level... And then you gently brush the keyboard of your Mac,

Do the keys light up?

Why can't Dell or Compaq or one of those guys have automatically lighting keyboards? I mean, they have it in planes and Sci-Fi movies...

PS. Quit bragging about Mac's chipset. <g>

By c_molinar@hotmail.com on September 19th, 2006 at 10:18 pm
We must have respect when we give our opinions.

By gaosongfeng@pansky.com.cn on September 20th, 2006 at 2:16 am
I like it.

By nagesh.kamath@gmail.com on September 20th, 2006 at 4:04 am
Have a Intel based Macbook and not a Macbook Pro myself... quite frankly am in love!! :) The keybopard mapping to a Windows required keys is solved in the latest version of BootCamp (1.1). The Windows "Delete" is mapped to fn+(Mac)Delete.

Also the inbuilt iSight camera, the Eject key all work with 1.1!! :)

Too cool! :)

By neilcoo@yahoo.co.uk on September 20th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
I dont get it.
Why would you buy a macBook then run XP on it? Thats like buying a Bentley then replacing the luxury leather seats with some plastic ones from a Kia.
You even mentioned your corporate network supports OsX.

By ddhootchie@hotmail.com on September 22nd, 2006 at 12:32 am
I've been using a Mac Book Pro and it is the bomb - especially compared to a heavy weight Inspiron or corporate loaded T42p. Xp with notepad runs OK but add anything more and whoa, I think we just hit the brakes.
Wintel_diehard@getworkdone.com is an idiot - get back to work - yeah OK - I'd like to but wait - I can't find my wireless network, oh man now I just gotta wait for a new IP, oh now what a hang up on Virus Scan, now Outlook hangs!!!!!
^%@#$^!$
Funny I never had any of those problems on the Mac - I wonder why
I could sit down, hit the network, open any/all iWorks apps, and jump into Xcode and Java development too.

By yeson.ye@gmail.com on September 26th, 2006 at 4:30 pm
i like it.and i like macbook la

By paul@guermonprez.org on September 27th, 2006 at 8:43 am
amazing how intel employees want to use their mactel at intel. heard the story many times. even considering doing the same myself. (mac at home is not enough, it's a hard drug)

By jonathan.bruce@datadirect.com on September 28th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
When I worked at Sun we had a fantastic but totally informal Apple user support group. Good to hear something similar is growing at Intel!

-Jonathan
http://jonathanbruceconnects.com/

By leebendix@gmail.com on October 4th, 2006 at 1:19 am
just got my macbook pro. two words "solid, & stable." the design is flawless, unlike a dell, or hp that could be compared to a car rebuilt using all aftermarket parts. I have been PC pro MS all my life even became A+ MCSE yada yada yada. I got a Mac Mini core duo, once i put both OS's on it i found myself using OSX more and more. Solid hardware & software designed for it, both work in accord and I have to say "I made the switch." =0) try it, before u knock it is all i have to say these machines are made to be tools to get the job done, but when the tool becomes a job itself then the tool is useless and waste time. lifes to short to be wasting time trying to fix/repair/maintain or be onthe phone trying to explain to your mom on how to install a printer. ;0)

By love_mac@apple on October 12th, 2006 at 5:50 am
i can't believe the comments from Wintel_diehard@getworkdone.com!
what do you mean by "labor-intensive network joining stuff, fine, shrink your partition and put gentoo on it and spend 3 days reading all the detail on NFS vs samba, samba 3.0 config"? I think you're reffering to OS9! In OSX, just click browse, choose your server, click connect! gee, not hard!

You have no idea mate, Enjoy your blue screen of death!
At least when a Mac kernel panics, it nicely tells you what to do!

By kirti kalra on October 30th, 2006 at 10:17 am
i cant believe that entire knowledg in this site. now i am very comfort.

By Aaron Tersteeg on October 30th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
Have you been using Parallels or CrossOver to run enterprise application? I've been experimenting with both but have not been able to get Parallels to emulate the right kind of network card. I'm unable to get the Windows XP Parallels Virtual Machine on my Mac Book Pro to obtain an IP address from the DHCP server on the wireless LAN. Works fine when I'm wired or looking for a DHCP server from OS X. Any ideas? Does Parallels offer swappable virtual hard ware?

By Cv Vick on November 1st, 2006 at 4:05 pm
hey Aaron! Welcome to Macs @ Intel fold.

I now use BootCamp to "cross-OS" 100% of the time. I tried using Parallels before the death of my first MacBookPro (see http://softwarecommunity.intel.com/ISN/Community/en-us/blogs.....25488.aspx), but never used it with WiFi inside Intel. I think I'll give Parallels another try, now that I found some one to answer MY questions.

Given the description of your problem. I'm guessing that it's related to the possible lack of 802.1x authentication support in the Parallels wireless driver. I know this doesn't answer your question but hopefully it gives you some ideas. BTW, there's been some threads on the Parallels forum that talk to this issue.

I recall someone telling me the Intel IT will be starting a Pilot of "officially sanctioned" Mac systems soon (Q1'07?). Finally, someone we officially complain to.

By prabu on December 30th, 2006 at 9:15 am
any america jobs

By Stephanie Booth on January 4th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Ouch! Is what I'm reading here an indication I won't be able to get my pretty MacBook on the network when I come in later this morning?

I hope I will... eeps.

By Jacob Hohisel on January 5th, 2007 at 7:46 am
I just wanted to let you know that there is a delete key, it's just hidden. Press Fn-backspace to get a delete (I have a MacBook).

By Cv Vick on January 5th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Hi Stephanie

You should be able to use our "guest" WiFi network during your visit (You probably already know this now).

I'm sorry I wasn't able to attend your talk (darnn those vacations!). As you can see, I could really use some help.

I hope your visit was enjoyable.

<cvv/>

By Cv Vick on January 5th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Jacob,

For some reason, the Fn-backspace combination didn't work reliably for me when using Bootcamp 1.0. Subsequebt versions worked much better.

Thanks,

<cvv/>

By buyani on January 19th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
It very nice to use your software


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